Chinese Musical Instruments Within and Beyond Museum Display: The Case of the Museum of Macau in Lisbon

Abstract

The Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre (CCCM) in Lisbon is a public institution managed by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education that represents the history and culture of Macau to people outside of the People’s Republic of China. The CCCM Museum’s permanent exhibition spans over seven thousand years of Chinese art and Macau’s history. The Museum also has one of the most complete collections of Chinese musical instruments available in the Iberian Peninsula. This special collection is used within and beyond museum display, and in fact is used in workshops that have become a paradigmatic example of the innovative idea of ‘object handling in [a] heritage context’ (Chatterjee 2008). Since its foundation (1999) the CCCM has organized various educational and academic activities whose focus has been mainly centred on promoting mutual understanding between Asia and Europe, among them workshops involving Chinese instruments.. Music has been chosen by the education department of the CCCM Museum for being a marker of a group’s identity, and—at the same time—for being one of the most stimulating means to understand the culture of others and promote dialogue between Asia and Europe.